Friday night means Ian's ball team at The Courts and though the boys played the best I've seen them do they came up short losing 19-17. Ian had 8pts and 2 assists with several other opportunities, but it was one of those nights we couldn't buy a basket. Oh well, the kids had fun and played hard and I can't ask for more than that.
Afterwards Ian and I (along with Deb) drowned our sorrows in some Buffalo Wild Wings which makes everything better.
Saturday morning it was up and early to get over to SBU's XC course to help setup for the Class 3 District 6 state qualifier meet. Great morning for a meet and both the Bolivar girls (1st place) and boys (2nd) ran their guts out and qualified their teams. Jake was psyched for all of them but was hurting not to be part of a team result as he is all about 'the group' and not individual awards. My heart once again broke for him. He did have an bit of sunshine in his day as mid-morning he received a prize (the new Ipod Touch) for winning a marketing competition for SBU's Physical Therapy Dept; not to shabby.
After the meet it was immediate departure for STL. Jake had a bunch of Halloween stuff planned with friends so he stayed home and didn't make the trip with us. Since I didn't race until 10pm we kicked it around Mandee's (Deb's sister lives in Wildwood) until it was time for me to head on over to Creve Coeur park for Bubba's Sprints of Darkness.
The freak show was in full effect as costumes were everywhere. My favorite was a Sumo wrestler outfit who rode the entire B race. Hung out with Jeff Yielding (all around good guy and a monster on the 'cross bike this year) for a bit, got in some pre-riding, and generally warmed up for a late mid-40* temp 1 hour go of it. The course was wide open pancake flat with lots of straights, wide open turning, and not exactly the best lighting job for a night race, but it would work. The only interesting part was a beach section that doubled on itself with an unrideable exiting lip; made for a pretty long run, but I was riding the second half and using one foot to boost the bike over the lip (worked out really well). A funny thing was someone had a cash hand up, but you had to grab it out of a dead smelly fish's mouth - hilarious!
20 or so starters in the A's and after a not so great start found myself in a mid-pack group of 4 swapping positions the entire night as I would get big gaps on the beach and barriers (one set of high triples) and they would roar past on the straights (total opposites made for fun racing). With 3 to go they sat on my wheel for 2 laps until they dropped the hammer and left me gasping as I took 14th. Solid riding and great deposit in the MO State bank.
STL has a cool race scene as it's way much more of an EVENT (big party atmosphere) and KC is much more about just racing. KC = race with a couple rowdy spectators while STL = party that breaks out into a bike race. With that said both coasts are fast and can race some bikes as I found I am an equal opportunist for getting my butt kicked by both.
Got back to Mandee's late and didn't hit the sack until way into the night.
Sunday morning came around late as everyone slept in and took our time getting around. Deb and I headed out late-morning to do some nick-knack shopping while Ian hung out with his cousin. Loaded up and got back over to Creve Coeur park for another round of Bubba (Boo-ba this time) in the A's. Temps were in the high 60's and pretty nice. Pre-rode the course which had way more turning than the night before, but still pretty fast with plenty of straights and open turning with only one triple barrier section (beach was removed).
24 lined up in the A's and got a decent (for me) start for being 3rd row. With a tighter course the field didn't spread out too much early on, but near the end of the first lap I made a turning mistake and found rubber side up with me underneath. Getting to my feet pretty quick I found tons a debris in my right shifter causing it to jam. I worked it a bit until I said screw it and rode the rest of the 58 minutes on a single speed with no front brake; oh yes, I was DFL by a ton. With it being a flat course and lucky the 1 gear I had was decently suited I had two tasks in mind: 1) race as hard as possible for the entire hour and catch as many as possible and 2) DONT GET LAPPED! Over the next hour I actually brought back a handful and didn't come close to being lapped to finish 17th. I was whipped tired, but feeling satisfied I made the best out of a potential frustrating situation and thus putting another huge deposit in the MO State Champ bank.
Racing at the middle back of the A's/Open events are tough on the ole EGO, but honestly is paying dividends as I am going faster than before and getting in longer races (an hour each).
Hey John. Way to hang in there when things did not go right.
ReplyDeleteThe 13th and 14th we have another double header, both are day races. Think about it.
Good to see you and Deb both.